The Mackinaw boat is a loose, non-standardized term for a light, open sailboat or rowboat used in the interior of North America during the fur trading era. Within this term two different Mackinaw boats evolved: one for use on the upper Great Lakes, and the other for use on the upper Missouri River and its principal tributaries.
The common origin of all Mackinaw boats was the Native American canoe. With its lightness, speed, cargo capacity, and double-ended flexibility, the canoe delighted fur traders of European origin. However, the Indian canoe design was not stable with a mast and sail. By contrast the Mackinaw boat, or generically "fish boat," held its own with superior sailing qualities in the more open water of the Great Lakes. It could be used, being used for long line, bottom net, and pond-net fishing operations.
The addition of a retractable centerboard made it possible to raise a small mast and sail over a canoe-shaped hull. This breakthrough probably took place some time in the late 17th century or early 18th century at the Straits of Mackinac, hence the name, Mackinaw boat. [1]
With the help of a sail and a favorable wind, a Mackinaw boat could cover an equivalent distance with much greater ease than by rowing with paddles. The Mackinaw boat quickly became a favorite on the upper Great Lakes. By the time of the dominance of the American Fur Company in 1815-1836, the Mackinaw boat was almost the commodity vessel in this region. The bateau was another common freight vessel design of the era, similar to the Mackinaw.
The fur company's men so liked the Mackinaw boat that when asked to build, paddle, and pole light cargo boats up the Missouri River to the company's new trading region in Dakota Territory and Montana Territory, they called the boats mackinaws, even though it was comparatively difficult to move a boat up the Missouri River by sail power. The Missouri River mackinaw may have borne some similarities to the river pirogue developed by French colonists in Louisiana Territory and adapted by the Americans as early as the time of Lewis and Clark.
Mackinaws were seen on the Missouri River as far west as Fort Benton, Montana, the head of navigation.
With the decline of the fur trade in the Upper Great Lakes in the late 1830s, the Mackinaw boats became traditional fishing boats. With its speed and cargo capacity, the boat was ideally suited for commercial fishing. Prior to refrigeration, it was necessary to haul a catch of cleaned fish rapidly to a fishing station where the catch could be plunged into brine and preserved with salt.
A standard Mackinaw boat used in fishing was 18–24 feet (5.4-7.2m) long. Like its canoe ancestor, the boat was flat-bottomed and could be hauled up onto a beach or pebbled shoreline. [1] The Mackinaw boat could be schooner-rigged, although there was no consistency on this point. The earliest incarnation of what has become The Burger Boat Company, then operating as "H. Burger Shipyard," began producing 20' to 30' versions of the Mackinaw boat out of Manitowoc, Wisconsin by the mid-1860's.
The Mackinaw boat was also used for light point-to-point transport and communication on Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, and, particularly, Lake Superior. In this role, it served into the early 20th century. [1]
The Mackinaw boat hull's relative flexibility and efficient movement through the water became less important in the 20th century with the invention of the outboard motor and other powerboat innovations. Few new Mackinaw boats were built after the 1910s. A gaff-rigged Mackinaw boat, the Edith Jane (built about 1909) is preserved inside a sealed shelter on the waterfront in St. Ignace, Michigan; it may be the final Mackinaw boat in existence that was built as a working vessel. [1] A few new Mackinaw boats began to be built after 1990 for explicit purposes of historical re-enactment and skills preservation.
A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished from boats, based on size, shape, load capacity and purpose. Ships have supported exploration, trade, warfare, migration, colonization, and science. Ship transport is responsible for the largest portion of world commerce.
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schooner also has a square topsail on the foremast, to which may be added a topgallant. Differing definitions leave uncertain whether the addition of a fore course would make such a vessel a brigantine. Many schooners are gaff-rigged, but other examples include Bermuda rig and the staysail schooner.
A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships carry square sails on each mast—the brig and full-rigged ship, said to be "ship-rigged" when there are three or more masts. Others carry only fore-and-aft sails on each mast, for instance some schooners. Still others employ a combination of square and fore-and-aft sails, including the barque, barquentine, and brigantine.
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the latter part of the 19th century. In commercial use, they were gradually replaced by fore-and-aft rigged vessels such as schooners, as owners sought to reduce crew costs by having rigs that could be handled by fewer men. In Royal Navy use, brigs were retained for training use when the battle fleets consisted almost entirely of iron-hulled steamships.
Le Griffon was a sailing vessel built by French explorer and fur trader René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in the Niagara area of Canada in 1679.
A pirogue, also called a piragua or piraga, is any of various small boats, particularly dugouts and native canoes. The word is French and is derived from Spanish piragua[piˈɾaɣwa], which comes from the Carib piraua.
A dugout canoe or simply dugout is a boat made from a hollowed-out tree. Other names for this type of boat are logboat and monoxylon. Monoxylon (μονόξυλον) is Greek – mono- (single) + ξύλον xylon (tree) – and is mostly used in classic Greek texts. In German, they are called Einbaum. Some, but not all, pirogues are also constructed in this manner.
A cutter is a name for various types of watercraft. It can apply to the rig of a sailing vessel, to a governmental enforcement agency vessel, to a type of ship's boat which can be used under sail or oars, or, historically, to a type of fast-sailing vessel introduced in the 18th century, some of which were used as small warships.
A lugger is a sailing vessel defined by its rig, using the lug sail on all of its one or several masts. They were widely used as working craft, particularly off the coasts of France, England, Ireland and Scotland. Luggers varied extensively in size and design. Many were undecked, open boats, some of which operated from beach landings. Others were fully decked craft. Some larger examples might carry lug topsails.
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water. Some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. The word nautical derives from the Latin nauticus, from Greek nautikos, from nautēs: "sailor", from naus: "ship".
Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull. They can range from small dugout canoes to large plank-built vessels. Outrigger boats can also vary in their configuration, from the ancestral double-hull configuration (catamarans), to single-outrigger vessels prevalent in the Pacific Islands and Madagascar, to the double-outrigger vessels (trimarans) prevalent in Island Southeast Asia. They are traditionally fitted with Austronesian sails, like the crab claw sails and tanja sails, but in modern times are often fitted with petrol engines.
The York boat was a type of inland boat used by the Hudson's Bay Company to carry furs and trade goods along inland waterways in Rupert's Land, the watershed stretching from Hudson Bay to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It was named after York Factory, the headquarters of the HBC, and by some accounts was supposedly modeled after the Orkney yole. Two variations to the York Boat were scows and "Sturgeon Heads."
The vinta is a traditional outrigger boat from the Philippine island of Mindanao. The boats are made by Sama-Bajau, Tausug and Yakan peoples living in the Sulu Archipelago, Zamboanga peninsula, and southern Mindanao. Vinta are characterized by their colorful rectangular lug sails (bukay) and bifurcated prows and sterns, which resemble the gaping mouth of a crocodile. Vinta are used as fishing vessels, cargo ships, and houseboats. Smaller undecorated versions of the vinta used for fishing are known as tondaan.
A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish and other valuable nektonic aquatic animals in the sea, lake or river. Humans have used different kinds of surface vessels in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing.
The bugeye is a type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. The predecessor of the skipjack, it was superseded by the latter as oyster harvests dropped.
Traditionally, many different kinds of boats have been used as fishing boats to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Even today, many traditional fishing boats are still in use. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), at the end of 2004, the world fishing fleet consisted of about 4 million vessels, of which 2.7 million were undecked (open) boats. While nearly all decked vessels were mechanised, only one-third of the undecked fishing boats were powered, usually with outboard engines. The remaining 1.8 million boats were traditional craft of various types, operated by sail and oars.
The Down Easter or Downeaster was a type of 19th-century sailing ship built in Maine, and used largely in the California grain trade. It was a modification of the clipper ship using a similar bow but with better cargo handling. It achieved a balance between speed and tonnage such that it made the wheat trade between California and Great Britain competitive with east coast grain trade via steam ship. It could make the trip between San Francisco and Liverpool in 100 days, despite rounding Cape Horn and crossing the equator twice. A more unusual name for the rig was shipentine.
Bangka are various native watercraft of the Philippines. It originally referred to small double-outrigger dugout canoes used in rivers and shallow coastal waters, but since the 18th century, it has expanded to include larger lashed-lug ships, with or without outriggers. Though the term used is the same throughout the Philippines, "bangka" can refer to a very diverse range of boats specific to different regions. Bangka was also spelled as banca, panca, or panga in Spanish. It is also known archaically as sakayan.
This glossary of nautical terms is an alphabetical listing of terms and expressions connected with ships, shipping, seamanship and navigation on water. Some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. The word nautical derives from the Latin nauticus, from Greek nautikos, from nautēs: "sailor", from naus: "ship".
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